Loving the fineliner things in life. London, UK

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I have synaesthesia.

….is the sentence I use most often to explain why my drawings look the way they do. This is usually followed by raised eyebrows of the person I talk to. ‘I can see sounds’, I’d then say, with a somewhat apologetic expression.

Synaesthesia has the stigma of a condition or illness to it. But to me, it is not. It’s an ability more like it; the ability of our brain to sense the world around us in more dimensions than commonly perceived. Synesthetes are able to connect sound with visuals, numbers with music, scent with colours and so on. And can they do this when sober! I’m sometimes asked if those images came to me on an Ayahuasca or DMT trip but this is not the case. In fact, I am rather scared to try these things as I’m not sure what to expect! Many revolutionary artists have or had synaesthesia: Tori Amos, Vincent van Gogh, Duke Ellington and Jimmy Hendrix, just to name a few.

When I listen to certain noises, they appear as sound waves or ripples and sometimes flashes of light. Music and even frequencies make geometric shapes, which can be fractal or symmetric. Depending on the mood, the visuals are in black and white or very colourful, psychedelic even. When a particularly beautiful shape pops up, I grab pen and paper to sketch it. A collection of the most stunning music I have seen goes into my drawings.

I hope this explains my art a little better. Enjoy looking at the music! 🙂